LCNP
and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms,
in association with the International Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War and International Network of Engineers and Scientists
Against Proliferation, released a Model Nuclear Weapons Convention (MNWC) drafted by an international consortium of lawyers, scientists,
disarmament experts, physicians and activists.

The Model NWC (April, 1997) prohibits the use, threat of use,
possession, development, testing, deployment and transfer of nuclear
weapons and provides a phased program for their elimination under
effective international control. It provides for the verified
elimination of nuclear weapons in much the same way comparable
treaties have banned landmines and chemical and weapons. (There
is also a ban on biological weapons, but there are as yet no verification
provisions.)

The MNWC was drafted to demonstrate the feasibility of the elimination
of nuclear weapons and thus stimulate negotiations to that end.
Costa Rica submitted the MNWC to the United Nations later that year; it was
circulated as UN Doc A/C.1/52/7.

The updated version considersd key developments since 1997 relevant
to the development and implementation of mechanisms for nuclear
abolition. These include the overt acquisition of nuclear weapons
by new countries (India, Pakistan and North Korea), the demonstrated
black-market and non-state actor access to nuclear materials,
the establishment of relevant criminal controls through UN
Security Council resolution 1540, technological developments
relevant to verification, and the establishment of new Nuclear
Weapon Free Zones (Mongolia and Central Asia).

In addition, in 2007 the Nuclear Weapons Convention and the book
Securing Our Survival
received specific high-level and cross-party support from around
the world including from conservative former Prime Ministers Malcolm
Fraser (Australia) and Jim Bolger (New Zealand); Nobel Peace Laureates
including Mairead Macguire; United Nations officials including
Sergio Duarte, UN High Representative on Disarmament; military
leaders including Romeo Dallaire, former Commander of UN Forces
in Rwanda; parliamentarians, and civil society leaders including
Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima.

On July 1, 2008, a cross-party group of members of the European
Parliament launched a Parliamentary declaration in support of
the Nuclear Weapons Convention. Signatories include Michel Rocard
(former Prime Minister of France) and Jena Luc Dehaene (former
Prime Minister of Belgium), both now members of the European Parliament.